This was a birthday gift for Bryos from Tiamat Asmodian.

It's a crossover of Aion and Warcraft. (slightly)

Ancient Mysteries

His idea about mission as reward greatly differed from the idea of Archon Freyja. Heiron forest was the third worst place he has ever visited, after Katalam and Kaidan Headquarters, and not even possibility of discovering a pre Cataclysm temple dedicated to lady Lumiel could help him to feel better about it. He didn't understand Freyja's obsession with the Shedim lords. They were their leaders and he truly respected them, especially lord Marchutan, but he knew they were not perfect. He prayed to them more out of habit than in hopes for their miracles. He loved history. It was due to all those books he read and stories he heard, that his faith in the Shedim lords wasn't as zealous as Freyja's. And right now he would be much happier if he could go to Enshar and help the Reians and learn and record information about them, while they still remembered it. The Upheaval made refugees from once proud and great nation he admired from the first day he visited their city.

It will better be a real temple. He sighed and crouched under another almost fallen tree and forced his attention on the land in front of him. The jungle was always full of surprises, small pools masked in grass, so random travellers wouldn't notice them until they stepped into them, nests of various insects and worms only waiting to be disturbed, but the worst was the everpresent heat and humid air.

After few hours of walking and crawling and evading everything and everyone, he finally reached the Lepharist territory. The temple should be located on the west side, which was fortunately the direction he came from. He watched the guards for another hour, during which he remembered their timing and routes. The sun went lower, it didn't fully set behind the horizon, that never happened in Elysea, but the shadows were now longer and it was easier for him to hide. If he was an assassin, he would have no trouble with overcoming the guards, but he was chanter and didn't posses any special ability to hide in shadows. And staff was more difficult to hide than sword or dagger. Slowly he circled the guarded entrance to the area and hidden in bushes he was able to get closer to the building, that was supposed to be the temple. There were no guards in front of it, which he attributed to the fact, the temple was called cursed, although no one was able to tell him why. He entered and silently descended the stairs. In the middle he stopped and listened. Some voices echoed from the room ahead of him, one male, deep and sad, the other belonged to a female, calm and soothing. He readied his staff and made few steps closer. He didn't want to attack them, even if it were Elyos who just needed some privacy, but it didn't hurt to first learn what they were doing there and be ready if he was discovered.

"Is it fixed yet?" the sad voice asked.

"Please be patient, the box is very ancient, I do not want to do some irrepairable damage to it," the woman answered and to his surprise, it didn't sound irritated.

"Lumiel gave it to me. Then left. Never came back. It shouldn't break."

"Do not worry, Deshirung. I will fix your music box before I leave. And if I meet Lumiel on my travels, I will ask her to visit you," she paused. "And you, visitor," she raised her voice a bit. She has noticed him. "If you do not wish us harm, you can enter without worry."

He decided to show himself. Still with the staff ready in his hand he stepped into the room. What he saw took him by complete surprise. In the midle of the room, that indeed looked like remains of some local temple, hovered a huge baloon like creature with two short fat arms and large, sad face.

"You're not Lumiel," it said. "Why are you here?"

"Ehm... I heard this place was a temple dedicated to lady Lumiel, so I came to investigate," he replied a bit stiffly.

"It was, indeed," the other voice spoke and he realised there should be the woman who was talking to this... creature before. She was sitting on one of the fallen rocks and smiling at him. Her hair and skin had the colour of bronze, which nicely contrasted with her white and still clean dress. She was holding a box on her lap and he saw her fingers had no claws. But his certainity about her being an Elyos waivered a bit when he looked into her eyes. Curious deep pools of red glittered like rubies in the torchlight. Two very ancient rubies. She continued: "From what I could find so far, it was a small local shrine dedicated to her. Probably tribute, some place where you could pray in silence, instead of temple of glory and celebrations. Deshirung has been helpful, but his memory has suffered due to the Cataclysm."

"Err... thank you. We had no idea something like this could be in Heiron, let alone untouched for all these years."

"That is because of Deshi... oh, where are my manners! My name is Seadormi and I study ancient ruins. Any ruins. The older the better. Deshirung here is the only inhabitant and guardian of this shrine. Because of his presence here the vandals found it to be difficult to destroy this place and stay alive."

"I'm Bryos, it's nice to meet you," the Asmodian said, still a bit astounded by the guardian and the friendly behaviour of the Elyos woman. She acted as if there was no war between them. But those eyes... was she really an Elyos? What else she could be? Balaur? No, that wasn't possible, even though the Balaur had a humanoid form, they couldn't achieve fully human shape. No, she was definitely an Elyos. Her eyes could be an anomaly or she could have some Asmodians in her ancestry. And they could look older, if she had seen too much.

"Nice to meet you too, Bryos. If you could excuse me for a moment, I would like to finish repairs of this music box."

"Yes, sure," he nodded and watched her weaving Aether around the box. Her technique was strange, he has never seen anyone working with Aether like this, but it might have been some Elyos thing. He never got an opportunity to watch them casting spells outside of battle. Then he realised why he came here at the first place. "Uhm, guardian Deshirung, would you mind if I made copies of some of the stone plates here? I promise I won't break anything."

"If you promise me to tell my regards to Lumiel, you can," the blimp replied, its voice was still sad.

"Yes, when I get the opportunity to talk with her, I'll tell her you're still here," Bryos agreed. He didn't add that the probability of him speaking directly to the Lady of Wisdom was next to zero. Regardless, he made a mental note to mention Deshirung in his report. He took large parchment and piece of chalk from his cube and begun redrawing first plate. It went surprisingly well and when he finished third plate, he found out that the others are too damaged to be of any use. As he looked for anything else he could copy and bring back for studies, he heard a beautiful and mesmerizing melody. Seadormi has repaired the box and was now presenting it to Deshirung. The big sad face was slowly turning into a happy one.

"Thank you, elder one, thank you," the guardian cried, when she put the music box on a place where it looked like it belonged. Elder one?

"It is sad, that the Dragon lords failed in their responsibilities," she said suddenly, her face was serious.

"Uh, what do you mean?" Bryos asked.

"Aion has created them to be protectors of this world," she explained. "And they failed, they succumbed to temptation of power and tried to enslave those whom they should protect. The saddest part is, all of them did so."

"You study the Dragon lords too?" although he could never admit it aloud, he found the Balaur oddly fascinating.

"Yes. I need to find out why they failed. What happened that caused it," as before, her face changed in an instant and she smiled. "But if they didn't, there would be no need for the Empyrean lords and this lovely music box wouldn't exist."

He couldn't figure out what to think of it. Was she insane? Or just too immersed in her studies? It would be nice to know more, but he had to return. Mission was a mission. And she was an Elyos, where was one, more could arrive any moment.

"It was nice to talk with you, but I have to hurry back," he told them. "Farewell."

"Farewell, don't forget to tell Lumiel I'm still waiting here," Deshirung made a gesture that could be waving.

"Farewell, Bryos of Asmodae," Seadormi smiled. "When I come to study ruins to your lands, please do not attack me. It would pain me if I had to hurt you."

"Uh, sure," he shook his head and left the room. On his way out he sort of agreed with Freyja, the mission wasn't as bad as he thought. Of course, he still had to overcome the Lepharist guards and find some rift back to Asmodae, both could prove to be difficult and could alter his opinion. But somehow the encounter with the floating creature and the Elyos with strange eyes has put his mind at ease.